Data mining is a technique by which hidden patterns may be found in a group of data. True data mining doesn't just change the presentation of data, but actually discovers previously unknown relationships among the data. Data mining is typically implemented as software in or in association with database systems. Data mining includes several major steps. First, data mining models are generated based on one or more data analysis algorithms. Initially, the models are “untrained”, but are “trained” by processing training data and generating information that defines the model. The generated information is then deployed for use in data mining, for example, by providing predictions of future behavior based on specific past behavior or recommendations for actions, such as purchases, based on past actions.
In order to add data mining functionality to application software, the application software must access and control software that provides the data mining functionality. Typically, application software accesses and controls the data mining software using an application programming interface (API) that is specific to the particular data mining software being used. Existing data mining software products provide APIs that are based on proprietary scripting languages, which are specific to each data mining software product. A problem arises with such existing languages in that they are inherently flat in structure, or use a non-object oriented programming language to specify the interface. Since most modern application software is written in standard object-oriented programming languages, using flat and/or non-object oriented APIs can be difficult and clumsy.
Additional problems arise in that existing data mining software products are often limited in the degree of programming language constructs that they support. For example, many data mining software products provide limited or no support for loops and conditional logic and parameterization of functions composed of data mining commands. In addition, many data mining tool scripting languages need to be integrated using an additional scripting tool, such as Practical Extraction and Report Language (Perl).
A need arises for a data mining application programming interface that provides an advanced interface including support for hierarchical and object-oriented programming languages and sophisticated programming language constructs, and does not need to be integrated using additional tools.